ECSE 6592 Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks

Spatial Diversity in Wireless

Networks
Hsin-Yi Shen
Nov 3, 2005
Introduction
 Main characteristic in wireless channels-
randomness in users’ transmission channels
and randomness in users’ geographical
locations
 Diversity- Convey information through
multiple independent instantiations of random
attenuations
 Spatial diversity- through multiple antennas
or multiple users
Wireless Channel
Characteristics
 Three kind of attenuations-path loss,
shadowing loss, fading loss
 Path loss: Signals attenuate due to distance
 Shadowing loss : absorption of radio waves
by scattering structures
 Fading loss :constructive and destructive
interference of multiple reflected radio wave
paths
Attenuation in Wireless Channels
Wireless Channel
Characteristics
 Key parameters of wireless channels-
coherence time, coherence bandwidth
 If symbol period>coherence time, the channel
is time selective
 If symbol period< channel delay spread, the
channel is frequency selective
MIMO Channel Model

H(k;l) is the lth tap of the Mr x Mt channel response

matrix, z is noise vector
Theoretical Consideration
 Information-Theoretic results for multiple-
antenna channels
 Information-Theoretic results for multi-user
channels
 Diversity order
 Design consideration
Information-Theoretic results for
multiple antenna channels (1)
1. The capacity C of the channel with Mt transmitters and Mr receivers
and average power constraint P is
 P Tmin 1 Tmax Tmin Tmax Tmin k!
C log(1  )  [ Lk ( )]2
e   d
0 Mt k 0 k  Tmax  Tmin
where Tmax  max(Mt , Mr ), Tmin  min(Mt , Mr ), and Lmk () is the
generalized Lagueree polynomial of order k with parameter m

2. For Mt  Mr  M , the capacity C given above grows

asymptotically linearly in M , i.e.,
C
lim  const
M  M
Information-Theoretic results for
multiple antenna channels (2)
3.
C ( SNR )
lim  min( M r , M t )
SNR  log( SNR )

 Assume the receiver had access to perfect

channel state information through training or
other methods
Information-Theoretic results for
multiple antenna channels (3)

The outage probability for a transmission rate of R and a

given transmission strategy p( X ) is defined as
Poutage ( R, p ( X ))  P{H : I ( X ; Y | H (k )  H )  R}

 At high SNR the outage probability is the same as

frame error probability in terms of SNR exponent
 For given rate, we can compare performance
through an outage analysis
Information-Theoretic results for multi-
user channels
 Two types of topology- multiple access channel
and broadcast channel
Information-Theoretic results for multi-
user channels
Given a configuration C, there exists a scheduling and relaying policy
 and a constant c  0 such that
lim P{ (n)  cR is feasible | C}  1
n 

for almost all configurations C as n  

i.e, the probability of the set of configurations for which the policy
acheives a throught of  goes to 1 as n  

(1) thrroughput is possible

Diversity Order and multiplexing
gain
Diversity order :
log( Pe ( SNR))
lim  d
SNR  log( SNR )
where Pe is average error probability

Multiplexing gain :
R ( SNR))
lim r
SNR  log( SNR )

where R is transmission rate

Relation between Diversity Order and
Multiplexing Gain
For N  M t  M r  1, and
K  min( M t , M r ), the optimal
tradeoff curve d * (r ) is given by
the piecewise linear function
connecting points in (k , d * (k )),
k  0,  , K where
d * (k )  ( M t  k )( M r  k )
Relation between rate and SNR
Design Consideration

 Space time code with low decoding

complexity and achieving maximum diversity
order
 Trade-off between diversity order and rate
 If system is delay-constrained, design with
high diversity order and lower data rate
 Fairness for resource sharing between users
 Cross layer design
Signal transmission

 Transmitter Techniques- spatial multiplexing,

space-time trellis code and block codes
 Receiver techniques- joint equalization with
channel estimation, space-time code
decoding
Spatial Multiplexing (Bell Labs Layered
Space-Time Architecture, BLAST)
 Multiple transmitted data streams are separated and
detected successfully using a combination of array
processing (nulling) and multi-user detection
(interference cancellation) techniques
 A broadband channel scenario using a MIMO
generalization of classical decision feedback
equalizer (DFE)
 The nulling operation is performed as “feed-forward
filter” and the interference cancellation operation is
performed by the “feedback filter”
Spatial Multiplexing-continued

 May have error propagation

 The presence of antenna correlation and the
lack of scattering richness in the propagation
environment reduce the achievable rates of
spatial multiplexing techniques
 Enhancement: Use MMSE interference
cancellation, perform ML detection for first
few streams
Space time coding

 Improve downlink performance without

requiring multiple receive antennas
 Easily combined with channel coding
 Do not require channel state information at
the transmitter
 Robust against non-ideal operating
conditions
Space-time Trellis codes
 Maps information bit stream into Mt streams of
symbols
 Decoding complexity increases exponentially as a
function of the diversity level and transmission rate
 Example:
Space time block codes
Cons and pros of space time block codes

 Achieve full diversity at full transmission rate for any

signal constellation
 Does not require CSI at the transmitter
 ML decoding involves only linear processing at the
receiver
 Does not provide coding gain
 A rate-1 STBC cannot be constructed for any
complex signal constellation with more than two
transmit antennas
 Simple decoding rule valid only for flat-fading
channel where channel gain is const over two
consecutive symbols
Tradeoff between diversity and
throughput
 BLAST achieves max spatial multiplexing
with small diversity gain
 Space time codes achieves max diversity
gain with no multiplexing gain
 Linear dispersion codes (LDC): achieve
higher rate with polynomial decoding
complexity for a wide SNR range
 Build in the diversity into the modulation
Build Diversity into modulation
Receiver techniques

 Coherent and non-coherent techniques

 Coherent technique require channel state
information by channel estimation or training
sequences and feed this to joint
equalization/decoding algorithm
 Non-coherent techniques does not require
CSI and more suitable for rapidly time-
varying channels
Joint Equalization/Decoding techniques

 M-BCJR algorithm: at
each trellis step, only M
active states
associated with the
highest metrics are
retained
 Significant reduction in
the number of
equalizer/decoder
states
Sphere decoder
 Suitable for codes with lattice structures
 Perform ML search with low computation
complexity
Joint Equalization/Decoding of space
time Block codes
 Eliminate inter-antenna interference using a
low complexity linear combiner
 Single-carrier frequency domain equalizer
(SC-FDE)
Performance of SC-FDE
Non-coherent techniques
 Does not require channel estimation
 Include blind identification and detection
schemes
 Exploit channel structure (finite impulse
response), input constellation (finite
alphabet), output (cyclostationarity) to
eliminate training symbols
 Use ML receiver which assumes statistics
about channel state but not knowledge of the
state itself
Summary in signal transmission
 Mitigate fading effect by using space diversity
 Use MIMO to realize spatial rate multiplexing
gains
 Use equalization techniques (ex: M-BCJR,
SC-FDE) to mitigate channel frequency
selectivity
 Use channel estimation and tracking,
adaptive filtering, differential
transmission/detection to mitigate time
selectivity
Networking issues
 Medium sharing resource allocation
 Mobility and routing
 Hybrid networks
Resource allocation

 Allocation criteria: rate-based criteria and job-

based criteria
 Rate-based criteria provide average data
rates to users which satisfy certain properties
 Job-based criteria schedule data delivery in
order to optimize various QoS guarantees
based on the job requests
Resource allocation-Rate-Based QoS
criteria
 Utilize the multi-user diversity inherently available in
wireless channels
 Schedule users when their channel state is close to
peak rate it can support
=> inherent unfairness
 Keep track of the average throughput Tk(t) and rate
Rk(t), transmit the user with the largest Rk(t)/ Tk(t)
among the active users
 If channel is slow time-varying, introduce random
phase rotations between the antennas to simulate
fast fading
Impact of spatial diversity
 Multi-antenna diversity provide greater reliability by
smoothening channel variations
 Multi-user diversity utilize the channel variability
across users to increase throughput
 Choose diversity techniques according to channel
conditions, mobility and application constraints
 For example, low delay-applications with high
reliability requirement may use multi-antenna
diversity with space time codes
Hybrid Networks

 Two approaches to increasing TCP efficiency

in hybrid networks
 Reduce error rate in wireless channel by
using more sophisticated coding schemes,
such as space-time codes
 Use explicit loss notification (ELN) to inform
the sender that the packet loss occurred due
to wireless link failure rather than congestion
in wired part
Space time code and TCP throughput

 STBC-enhanced 802.11a achieves a

particular throughput value at a much lower
SNR value than the standard 802.11a
 STBC modify the SNR region under which a
particular transmission rate should be chosen
 STBC increase the transmission range and
improve robustness of WLANs
STBC-enhanced 802.11a
 The difference between
STBC 802.11a and
802.11a becomes
smaller when channel
quality is sufficiently
good
 STBC-802.11a can
switch to faster
transmission mode at
much lower SNR
values
Conclusion
 In wireless networks, power and spectral
bandwidth are limited
 Limitation on signal processing at terminal
and requirement of sophisticated resource
allocation techniques due to variation in
capacity
 Spatial diversity improves data rates and
reliability of individual links
 Space time codes improves link capacity and
system capacity through resource allocation
Future works
 Space time code design
 Implementation issues-low-cost multiple RF
chains and low-power parallelizable
implementation of STC receiver signal
processing algorithm
 Receiver signal processing-the development
of practical adaptive algorithm that can track
rapid variation of large number of taps in
MIMO channel and/or equalizer
 Standardization activities
Reference

 [1]S. N. Diggavi, N. Al-Dhahir, A. Stamoulis,

and A.R. Calderbank, “Great Expectations:
The Value of Spatial Diversity in Wireless
Networks,” Proceeding of The IEEE, Vol. 92,
No. 2, pp219-270, Feb 2004
 [2] Sergio Verdu, “Multiuser Detection,”
Cambridge University Press, 1998